Leaked documents from the Curaçao Gaming Authority show regulators questioned Stake’s ownership and financial disclosures before granting it a license, the Australian Financial Review reported. The leak, published by Berlin-based hacker Lilith Wittmann, included thousands of gambling license applications and showed officials raising concerns about Stake’s declared ownership, missing audited financials and a corporate structure that appeared to show low profitability despite substantial revenues.
The leak exposed thousands of applications to licensing regulators in the Dutch Caribbean island, including that of Melbourne-based Stake, which operates globally in markets including South America and India. The leaked documents included financial reports, strategy documents and personal details of online gambling website owners, according to the AFR.
Stake co-founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani launched Stake.com in 2017. Craven, 31, is among the world’s youngest self-made billionaires. The platform processes billions of bets on sports, virtual table games and online slot machines offshore.
Ownership Questions
The Curaçao Gaming Authority granted Stake a license via its operating entity Medium Rare N.V., but officials questioned whether the company had appropriately disclosed its true ownership. Stake’s application stated it was owned by Mladen Vuckovic, identified as its chief executive officer.
“But most online searches indicate Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani to be the founders/owners of Stake, but there has been no specific disclosure of either individual in this application,” regulatory officials said in the authority’s final 2025 report on Stake, as quoted by the AFR.
Officials also raised questions about the company’s corporate structure and financial disclosures, stating it did not make sense that profits were so small compared to disclosed revenues.
“The [year-end] figures for 2021, 2022 and 2023 show the applicant to be marginally in profit. In addition, a crypto wallet statement (potentially that of the wider Stake group business) indicates a balance of USD 677,625,519.66,” the officials said.
“What is unclear is the applicant’s true beneficial ownership and its connections and business/contractual arrangements with [Ed Craven], [Bijan Tehrani], Easygo, Primedice, Sweepsteaks and Well Done STK, and why the profitability of the company is so relatively low by reference to its revenues.”
Missing Documents
According to the report, a number of documents Stake was required to provide were missing or not properly certified, and the company failed to provide audited financials. “Given how long it has been trading, we have no idea why it could not have filed audited statements,” a regulatory official said.
Easygo, the company which operates Stake in Australia, was contacted for comment but did not respond before the deadline, the AFR reported.
Global online gambling companies are licensed in Curaçao to work with game studios, payment companies and mainstream advertisers, which require such documentation. Gambling companies have also favored the Dutch Caribbean island due to its lack of taxes on gambling revenue.
Australian-Targeting Sites
The leaks also showed that several websites listed by companies operating in Curaçao are targeting Australians with illegal online casinos by incorporating the letters “aus” in their domain names, such as ausslots or spinnaus.
A 2025 report commissioned by Responsible Wagering Australia estimated that 36% of all gambling expenditure generated in the country, equivalent to $3.9 billion annually, was now going to illegal offshore gambling operators. That figure is projected to grow to $5 billion by 2029.
Illegal sites can offer consumers better odds and inducements because they are less constrained by regulation, which takes market share from regulated operators and erodes a revenue source for state and federal governments that generates billions of dollars in gambling taxes, according to the AFR.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority regularly bans these illegal sites, although offshore operators can often skirt the bans by slightly changing their names, a practice known as domain hopping.
